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Kristallnacht: The November 1938 Pogroms

On November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews. In the space of a few hours, thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed. This event came to be called Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") for the shattered store windowpanes that carpeted German streets

Synagogue set on fire during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass"). Eberswalde, Germany, November 1938.

The interior of the Hechingen synagogue, destroyed during Kristallnacht. Germany, November 10, 1938.

SS men vandalize the Hof synagogue during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass"). Germany, November 1938.

The Wiesbaden Synagogue on Michelsberg Street, c.1880

The Wiesbaden synagogue burning during Kristallnacht on November 10, 1938.

Outline of the plan of the Wiesbaden synagogue painted in blue on the original site, part of an installation called FRAGMENTS by architect Heinrich Lessing and the Active Museum group in 1995.

The burning of the synagogue in Ober Ramstdt during Kristallnacht. The local fire-department
prevented the fire from spreading to a nearby home, but made no attempt to intervene
in the synagogue fire. Trudy Isenberg Collection, USHMM Archives

Jews arrested during Kristallnacht line up for roll call at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
November 1938.

View of the interior of the Essenweinstrasse synagogue in Nuremberg following its
destruction during Kristallnacht

Germans view the damage caused to a Jewish-owned store in Berlin.
November 10, 1938

Jews hoping to receive exit visas at a police station in Vienna.

Austrian child's passport issued in December 1938 in preparation for his family's emigration
to the United States. The family perished while awaiting their quota numbers.

On November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews.

It was an utterly shameful thing. It is actually worse: the Progroms were for a good part not ordered. The Nazi leadership simply made a lot of bad propaganda against Jews and encouraged it...by making it silently clear that violence against Jews would not be persecuted. So it was a great chance for many to settle scores (if the one in question was a Jew, by chance, vent off steam, or just enjoy the once ina lifetime chance to destroy something. And the majority stood silently by. Even the next day the German people felt ashamed...bunt instead of drawing the consequences one reacted with silence. Mentally the matter was swept under the rug. To their defense one can say that other people who would in the following years do similiar things, (sometimes with Germans at the receiving end) the reactions were similiar.

Austrian child's passport issued in December 1938 in preparation for his family's emigration
to the United States. The family perished while awaiting their quota numbers.

A thing many Americans do not seem to know today is that USA back then was by no means a country that took on fleeing Jews with open arms. On the contrary, because of Roosevelts personal order the immigration of Jews was severly restricted. And the British behaved similiar, even as far as Palestine was concerned.

A thing many Americans do not seem to know today is that USA back then was by no means a country that took on fleeing Jews with open arms. On the contrary, because of Roosevelts personal order the immigration of Jews was severly restricted. And the British behaved similiar, even as far as Palestine was concerned.